Means for protecting earthen dams, river levees, etc.



March 7, 1933. D, HENRY 1,900,341

MEANS FOR PROTECTING EARTHEN DAMS, RIVER LEVEES, ETC

Filed Aug. 5l, 1951 f .xm M

u 10 INVENTOR. M n n- PatentedV Mar. 7, 1933y Urrea STATES! `Persi "ortica sKnL'roN D. HENRY, or Hous'roN, TEXAS MEANS Fon PROTECTING EARTHN nniusnivnn L Evnns, nrc,l

.Application `1ed August 31,:1931. Serial No. 560,403. 'Y

Reference is made to the accompanying Figure 2 is an enlargement of a beam in combination with stakes or piles thereto. l l Figure 3 is an enlargement of a metal gutter 7.

Figure. 4 is a cross section of twoo'f the adjacent beams and the metal gutter and stakes attached thereto.

Figure 5 is a con-crete beam 15 with stakes attached thereto. F ig. 6 is a fragmentary horizontal section of the side-hill in 'Fig'. l showing the matting of excelsior 17, the

attached flexible metallic netting, 18 being meshes of the same, and the plain beams 10 and the disclosed stakes 6. f v Y In Figure l, number l is a transverse vertical section of the dams reservoir floor, and

2 is a section of the top surface of the earthen embankment.

lying longitudinally with the flow of the water on the upper part of the reservoir face and the crest of the dam, secured thereto by the stakes 6 passing through slots or holes in the beams and driven linto the earth at ob.-

lique angles from each other. rlhose beams may be made of wood, concrete, or metal. It will not be necessary to slope their ends. The stakes or piles may beef any suitable 10 material, preferably of metal. Numbers?V and 7 are the sheet metal gutters extending the lengths of the beams 3 and 5, the dotted hidden lines in them indicating the gaps between the said two adjacent beams.

In Figure 2, the enlarged beam 3 shows its upper corners chamfered vand two small grooves 4 extending its length in order to receivethe concaved metal gutter 7 Withits flanges 4 shown in Figure 3. Y

In the cross sections in Figure 4, the metal Numbers 3 and 5 arebeams gutter 7 is i attacl ed and fastened tof the beams 3 by smallspilresornails 16.v vrlhe crossA sections of the. beams 3 and 5 are similar and they aresecurcd te the dam in the same Way.

In Figure 1,'the beams 8 lic horizontally 55 on the apron of the dam on the reservoir side rtl-'ie beams 9' lie inclined on a part of the dams face; the beams lO lie horizontally on the face of the sloping sidehill; the beams 1l lie inclined on the `overflow side of the 60 dams face; the beams l2 are in a slanting'A position on the remainder of theface of the sloping side-hill.' At the end of the dam, the ends of some of the numbers 3, 5, 7, 9, l0, l1, are sloped to fit the incline of the side- ,65`

hill. In damfbuilding practice it will not be necessary to slope the said numbers.

.` If the beams 3 and l5 be made of wood, their f upper corners may be cha'mfered and the grooves for the reception vof the gutters'( 70 cut in them at the lumber factory vfurnishing them g. er they may be anchored in their permanentpositions on the dam and a small portable machine employed to cha-infer their A upper corners and to cut those small grooves in'k them. If they be of concrete they may be made' on the dam, first by driving those stakes into the'earth at the desired places, their vupper ends projecting to a suitable height anda form similar to number l5 in 80 Figure 5 used to give the beams 3 and 5 their proper shapes, the concrete then to be poured y varound the proieetingends lof those'stales 6.

While thosev concrete beams 3 are in the plastic state the gutters 7 may be impressed 85 `into them to cover the gaps between anytwo adjacent beams toy prevent the leakage of water therethrough. The `gutters 7 may then be fastened to the beams 8 and 5 by small spikes or nails 16 in the same way as in Fig- 90 ure d. The said beams l and, as well as any ofthe other beams mentioned herein, maybe made of lconcrete at a distance from the dam,

of proper shape and with the slots or holes made in them to admit the stakes 6 and ready 95 to be placed on theV dam. Narrow strips of wood may then fill the 'gaps between any Vtwo adjacent beams and the .gutters 7 fastened to them vby nails.

n Ih'ave demonstrated by actual tests by us- 100 ing the same number and size of piles and on the same soil that those driven into the ground at a l5-degree angle from a perpendicular had far greater anchoring and supporting strength than those driven vertically.

rllhe principles of the anchoring and supporting strength of a series of those stakes or piles for securing bodies to the earth as l have illustrated herein may be compared to those of the roots of a tree or the fangs of a molar tooth.

In Figure l, beams 8 to 12 inclusive supei-pose a system of Wire netting Which, if laid over a mass of eXcelsior or other sort of brous material, and the combination applied to the exposed earth of a dam, dike, or

levee, it will prevent sloughing and protectagainst erosion by flowing Water. lt Will further be a protection against cravviish7 eels,

gophers, muslrats and other aquatic animals,

lt is a good practice in building earthen dams to treat its Areservoir face with a thin puddle of clay. iii-ass of excelsior in coni bination With a Wire netting held in place by those beams already explained will be a good retainer for the puddled clay and silt.

What l claim therefore and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A Water-retaining earthen dam having a series of beams overlying its crest and the n upper part of its Water face7 the said beams being in a combination With metallic gutters, the said beams having their upper longitudir, nal corners chamfered and two narrow verticalgrooves (one adjacent to each chainfered corner) extending the length of the face of the beam, the metallic gutters being concaved and their margins flanged down- Ward, the flanges fitting into the aforesaid grooves, the gutters covering the gaps between any two adjacent beams and secured thereto by nails to prevent the leakage of Water therethrough.

2.' A Water-retaining eartheneinbankinent having its surface covered by a matting of fibrous material and the saine overlaid With a flexible metallic netting and the combination anchored to the surface of the einbankment by a series of beams superposed on the mass of the said matting and netting, thesaid beams having slanting apertures through thein in various directions through Which stakes are driven into the embankment in divergent directions from each other and from a perpendicular to the plane of the surface.

SKELTON D. HENRY. 

